Category: Tech news

 So far HAX startups have run 20 successful campaigns, making us the most prolific investor in crowdfunded hardware projects. As active participants and keen observers, we identified a few ideas that could help creators, backers, media and investors. Read More

 Are you thinking about buying a TV that can handle the absurdly high-def resolution that is 4K? The good news: Netflix is slowly but surely getting more 4K videos! They’ve got Breaking Bad in 4K! House of Cards in 4K! And…er… The Smurfs!
The not-so-good news: if you want 4K content, you’re going to have to cough up some more cash for your subscription. Read More

 The mythos and mystique around starting your own business are thick. The romanticized view of founders slaving away in garages ready to unleash their “great idea” upon an adoring public and fawning investors is the stuff of American dreams.
The reality is businesses are often born in desperation, fueled by loneliness and doubt. The distance between starting your own firm in your… Read More

 According to Edward Snowden, people who care about their privacy should stay away from popular consumer Internet services like Dropbox, Facebook, and Google.
Snowden conducted a remote interview today as part of the New Yorker Festival, where he was asked a couple of variants on the question of what we can do to protect our privacy. Read More

 The first panel of today’s Startup School: Silicon Valley at the Flint Center for the Performance Arts consisted on Paul Graham interviewing SV Angel’s Ron Conway. Given the audience — which based on some chatting before the event, consisted of many Stanford students and high schoolers in the South Bay Area — Graham’s line of question primarily had to do with… Read More

 Here are the top TechCrunch articles from the past week (10/4-10/10).
1. Tesla unveiled its latest “Dual Motor” car in a series of 3 models based on the company’s Model S: the 60D, 85D, and highest-end P85D. The stunning all-wheel drive car can drive and park itself. We also gave you rundown of how the company got to where it is now, with “A Brief History Of… Read More

 With the announcement of Apple Pay, Apple is betting that consumers want an even more convenient way to pay in person. Many in the payment space have attempted to make this evolutionary leap, but it seems that with Apple’s dominance of the easy-to-use mobile device market, it is uniquely positioned to become successful. There are existing examples of similar, successful implementations,… Read More

 The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — go forward into the past with the Firesign Theatre’s David Ossman. The occasion: Doc Searls’ exploration of the state of radio on our cars’ digital dashboard. The Firesign Theatre transformed the world of comedy records and, along the way, predicted/invented a vision of the future we’re now… Read More

 The debate wages on at the U.S. Supreme Court over gay marriage, but not in Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Players can pick a dress, a ring and whichever sort of partner they prefer to tie the knot with. Just like in Kim’s real life, those in the game can now experience the wedding of their dreams in Florence, Italy, too. The update, which went out last week, launched the popular app from… Read More

 When you have a question you need answered, do you ask a friend – or a robot? The answer to that question used to be easy. But the rise of Siri, Yahoo and Google has ushered in an era in which we turn, not to experts, but to search engines to answer our questions. By failing to solicit human responses in the pursuit of information, I believe we are making a big mistake – in… Read More

 The Internet Of Things is coming. Rejoice! …Mostly. It will open our collective eyes to petabytes of real-time data, which we will turn into new insights and efficiencies. It will doubtless save lives. Oh, yes: and it will subtly redefine ownership as we know it. You will no longer own many of the most expensive and sophisticated items you possess. You may think you own them. But… Read More

 In the rarified world of ‘private data clouds’ a handful of companies dominate. On the open source side, Red Hat acquired Ceph for $175m and Gluster for $136m. Then there was EMC, which acquired ScaleIO for $200m.
Now a UK company thinks it has come up with a new kind of open source storage technology designed to build private data clouds.
Skylable Sx claims it has had 110,000+… Read More

 As you prepare to apply your Barbasol and your hair pomade while whistling a bit of Benny Goodman, what razor to do you reach for? Do you grab a seven-bladed monstrosity, cast in bright orange plastic and chrome and made to last three shaves? No. You reach for a single blade beauty, a razor that can shave four star generals and the common Joe with equal aplomb. You’re going to reach for… Read More

 I don’t mean to pile onto Snapchat in the middle of the #Snappening. But I thought there was something interesting that went missed in CEO Evan Spiegel’s multi-generational chat with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week at the Vanity Fair Summit. During the Hong Kong demonstrations that blew up this month, he and his team briefly discussed turning the protests… Read More

 The NSA doesn’t like leaks. But it does like leaks when it chooses to leak, as then it gets to exert influence over the media, and thus potentially shape the public narrative. And as we have variously learned, not everything initially marked TOP SECRET//COMINT//NO FORN needs to stay that way, after all. Read More